Gender Roles

They Exist - Kind of - Not Really - Not in this house anyway.

So one of the first 'married' conversations that Jeff and I had involved what our "jobs" would be as a married couple. By jobs I mean - Who takes out the trash? Pays the Bills? Cleans the Bathroom? It was then that we realized, HOW STUPID IS THAT?!

Jeff and I both work full time, k? So if one person was responsible for a specific task, 9 times out of 10 it wouldn't get done promptly.
For example - Sam cleans out the refrigerator at 6:30pm and, in the process, overloads the trashcan in the kitchen. Let's just say that she leaves the trash for Jeff to clean up when he gets home from work (at 1:30am). That leaves SEVEN HOURS for the trash to just sit there and start to stink just because it's Jeff's "Job!" to take it out when he gets home - at 1:30am, in the dark, and the dumpster is down the street. So why should it be Jeff's job to take out the trash? Because he's a man and men should handle the heavy, stinky stuff? No way! If the trash needs to be taken out, TAKE IT OUT! Bottom line - if it needs to be done, just do it.

Team work - that's what we like to call it. Nothing gets done properly if it's up to one person to get it done. We've done our best to use the team work philosophy everywhere in our relationship. This involves paying bills, running errands, and doing house work. I'm a lucky woman because I have a husband who actually AGREES with this philosophy. (I promise, this was not just my idea). Not only do we have to work together just because we each have busy, full-time jobs, but we also have busy, full-time jobs with very different schedules. I work M-F from 8:30am to 5:00pm with a 3 hours round-trip commute. Jeff's schedule changes every week and is usually 2:30pm to 12:30am. Weird right? Since we're never home together, we have to tag-team some of these issues at different times throughout the day. Another example - If Jeff really needs his underwear washed because they're all dirty and he'll have to go commando the next day if we don't wash something. (Ew, gross example). Anyway, if he depended on Sam to get it done because it's her "job" then she'd be up until 10 or 11pm to ensure his underwear happiness the next day. However, if Jeff takes the time to put the underwear load in the washer before he leaves for work at 2:30pm and Sam takes a minute to transfer the underwear in to the dryer when she gets home later in the evening, then the underwear will be dry and ready for Jeff's bottom by the next day and no one lost sleep in the process! Genius?!?! I know!!